_____ _            __     ___ _ _                  _ _
|_   _| |__   ___   \ \   / (_) | | __ _ _ __   ___| | | ___
  | | | '_ \ / _ \   \ \ / /| | | |/ _` | '_ \ / _ \ | |/ _ \
  | | | | | |  __/    \ V / | | | | (_| | | | |  __/ | |  __/
  |_| |_| |_|\___|     \_/  |_|_|_|\__,_|_| |_|\___|_|_|\___|

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~ a meditation on form and obsession ~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The Villanelle Generator

A procedurally generated villanelle on the theme of night. These are not Dylan Thomas—no algorithm could be—but they follow his form.

night
time
memory
love
nature
loss
hope
wandering
When stars appear like sparks, I know the right The midnight bells toll settles in the seam And what glows now will always beam Though lamplight flickers gold through the slight We learn to let the lamplight flickers gold seem When stars appear like sparks, I know the right What seems so night might come to bright And every shadows gather deep will glows and dream And what glows now will always beam The right holds more than meets the eye While something settles in the beam When stars appear like sparks, I know the right We cannot know how slight will try To shape what glows beneath the seam And what glows now will always beam So when the stars appear like sparks settles by And midnight bells toll glows in the seem When stars appear like sparks, I know the right And what glows now will always beam

Seed a Villanelle

Enter any word to generate a unique villanelle:

About Generated Villanelles

These villanelles are assembled from word banks themed to their subject matter. Each theme contains ten rhyming words for the 'a' sound, ten for the 'b' sound, ten images, and ten verbs. The generator constructs refrains and fills in the tercets according to the traditional pattern.

The results are imperfect by design—no algorithm can match human craft. But they demonstrate the form's structure and might spark your own attempts.